Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected on the streets of Paris on Tuesday as France’s powerful trade unions join high school students rallying for better conditions in a wave of protests marked by clashes with police. <\/p>\n
Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15 to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures. <\/p>\n
While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have lit dustbin fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police, who have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds, AFP said. <\/p>\n
The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement, with a 15-year-old losing a hand on Monday after, according to a police union source, he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers. <\/p>\n
The unrest has erupted with just months to go before the 2027 election to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron after his maximum two terms in office. <\/p>\n
More protests are expected across the country on Tuesday after teaching was disrupted at 589 of the country’s 3,700 lycees and 32 universities, according to the education ministry and a student union. <\/p>\n
Authorities are expecting some 20,000 to 40,000 demonstrators in Paris. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office has called for “peaceful” gatherings, calling for a return to “a structured, legal and democratic form of opposition”. <\/p>\n
The head of the CGT labor union Sophie Binet has said its members would be there to “protect high-school students”. <\/p>\n
– ‘Disproportionate police repression’ – <\/p>\n
Several unions and rights groups have accused the police of using disproportionate force against the protesters. <\/p>\n
Amnesty International late Monday said the French authorities should “put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days during student protests”. <\/p>\n
“The images and testimonies widely circulated over the past week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons and policing techniques by the police,” Amnesty’s Anne Savinel-Barras said. <\/p>\n
The police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday. <\/p>\n
The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of being behind the movement. <\/p>\n
Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods. <\/p>\n
Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the education ministry. <\/p>\n
More than 5,000 people, 87 percent of them minors, have been arrested. <\/p>\n
Lecornu’s office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured. <\/p>\n
The prime minister has sought to address the issue of missing teachers and renovating buildings that are dilapidated. <\/p>\n
The government is also pushing legislation to make those responsible for damaging public property pay for repairs themselves, instead of using public funds. <\/p>\n
Lecornu has said the draft law could allow compensation payments to be recovered from family allowances and housing benefits while ensuring a minimum income. <\/p>\n
Union leader Binet has said it would “end up targeting the most vulnerable families”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected on the streets of Paris on Tuesday as France’s powerful trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-917987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}